Design of Sustainable Compacted Soil Blocks for Raising Dykes Along the New Brunswick Fundy Coastline Due to Climate Change Driven Sea Level Rise

ABSTRACT: As global temperatures continue to rise due to climate change, ocean waters' thermal expansion and terrestrial ice melting are causing increased sea levels in Atlantic Canada. As a result, marshland dykes in New Brunswick are being overwhelmed by rising ocean levels. The New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (NBDTI) is currently adapting dykelands infrastructure to withstand higher sea level elevations and continue to preserve the 14,500 hectares of valuable agricultural land and infrastructure along New Brunswick coastlines. Current dyke construction methods are no longer considered feasible due to the low-shear strength soils in the area, leading to a large footprint over valuable land. This paper assesses the feasibility of using compacted local soil blocks to increase the Shepody dykelands elevation by 2.5m to reach an elevation of 9.6 m CGVD2013 without expanding the current dyke footprint. This work included conducting site geotechnical and geophysical investigation, laboratory testing, numerical analysis programs, and a small-scale physical dyke model. Based on the results, it was concluded that a dyke raise of 2.5 m using compacted local soil blocks is feasible and should be explored with further research.